Creative Tools
Please browse the diferent tools to find what you need or use the search facility above.
The following PDF articles were published in Train the Trainer in 2004 and 2005 and are still relevant. Please click on the title to download.
How to reduce the risk of difficult people in workshops
Published creative techniques for trainers
How to use creative techniques when facilitating training
How to use improvisation comedy techniques in workshops and training
How to use energisers in workshops and training.
The following are online articles explaining how to use tools.
153 Engage People with Open Space
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 153 If you hold large gatherings for staff and clients, want to increase engagement and don’t want to create agendas, find speakers, obtain their presentations and run through time consuming rehearsals, Open Space might be the answer. “Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee.” Muhammad Ali, former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Want to create more engagement in your staff or client conferences? Recently, I was one of the organisers of the SOLWorld 2012 Conference at Oxford University. This is an...
read more152 Creative Ideas in Ten Minutes
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 152 An eBook that shows you how to create ideas in ten to sixty minutes How might blackberry picking be an analogy for idea generation? I am busy writing eBooks for my web site and thinking of a topic for a Creative Gorilla at the same time. So I thought “why not combine the two?” It will make a nice change for me and hopefully for you too. So this week, I will summarise the eBook and you can then link to it if you wish to. The eBook combines two older Gorilla articles in to one book, with...
read more151 Solution Focussed Post Project Review (with remote team)
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 151 How to run a post project review with remote teams and in a positive way “One does not have to be a mad scientist to travel in time.” Authors of research paper: “Back to the future. Temporal Perspective in the Explanation of Events.” Need to run a brief post project review including remote teams? Post Project (or phase of a project) Reviews are a regular type of meeting that organisations run. However, there can be some issues: Often, people are keen to...
read more147 Map Your Goals and Challenges…
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 147 How might you gain a better understanding of your goals and challenges? “First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” John F. Kennedy, former US President Do you need to understand how your goals fit together? Kennedy made the above point in a “State of the Union” speech to the US Congress on 25 May 1961. Whilst most countries would probably dedicate a whole...
read more145 Gain new insights and ideas…
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 145 One way to find better insights and solutions for an issue or opportunity is to use Reflecting Teams “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius Would you like better insights and solutions to resolve an issue or exploit an opportunity? Imagine you have an issue and want to obtain input from others to broaden your perspective and...
read more143 Use Imagery to Explore Issues
YES! AND… Creative Gorilla 143 Exploring metaphorical images can help reveal new insights… “The past is a pebble in my shoe…” Edgar Allan Poe Need a creative tool to explore issues? During our holiday last July we spent three days horse riding. After two days I had seen enough of horses and my back ached terribly. I was a “groucho” not a gaucho. I decided that I would sit out the third day, but my son loved riding and really wanted to go. So I said I would go with him. Bad decision. On the way back, the leaders...
read more142 Create Ideas Systematically…
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla 142 “What if we: Divide; Reduce; Enlarge; Adapt (use and form); Mix; Exclude; Replace; Switch?” John Brooker Dreamers create ideas systematically When I was a student on my Masters of Business Administration (MBA) course, I regarded as sacrosanct the theories, tools and techniques we were taught. The gurus of strategy, marketing, innovation et al were demi gods and we should bow to them reverentially. This was easy to do because as a student doing a full time job and a part time MBA, I was...
read more137 Develop actions creatively
Yes! And… Creative Facilitator # 137 Here’s a simple but powerful tool for identifying actions creatively. “To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Today, I sat in the cockpit of a 737 aircraft as the pilot landed very smoothly at Phnom Penh airport in Cambodia. Ten minutes later, I was home in London. No, time travel has not come to London. I was with my son as we observed a crew flying a flight simulator. This is their 5th year of flying a full sized Boeing 737 BBJ flight...
read more12 Ways to Kick Off Your Meetings
Do you face the challenge of keeping your regular team meetings fresh? Here are twelve tried and tested ways to kick off your meeting, one for each month in the year. To take the burden off you, each month, assign a title to a different person in the group and have them organise and run it for that month’s meeting. For the cynical amongst your team, we give a reason for doing the exercise as well as an explanation of how to run it. Most exercises take no more than five minutes. Month Title Action Reason January Wrecking...
read more134 Make Better Decisions Through Discussion…
Yes! And… Creative Gorilla # 134 How you can make better choices… the Dot Choice Tool “The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.” Charles Bukowski (1920 – 1994) American Poet and Novelist Would you like to make better choices? Imagine you are facilitating a meeting with a group and you have to choose from a range of options. One way you can do this is to explain each option briefly...
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